Void's Questions
by ZenHeyerdall
Summary: "When we met, you said that you didn't expect to meet me" " I remember" " It was true?"


**Disclaimer: I don't own Dishonored**

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After regaining her throne, Emily wondered if things were going to go back as they were before someday. Somehow, she knew that not completely, that everything had changed even though almost everyone couldn't realize it, she now had his mark and , like his father did, she was forced to make hard decisions that she didn't like it.

It was the mark what worried her the most, the only one who could see it was her father and it was because he had one too and he knew what she was feeling, they shared that secret, but no one else could find out, If somebody did it...well, she would be called a heretic and sentenced to death even with her position as empress.

So she wore a thin black glove to cover it, she only took it away in such intimate moments and privates as sleeping, at the bath or when she was alone at her room.

Wyman had been the first to be surprised by this detail but also curious , he had asked too many questions that had ended with Emily's delicate patience, who couldn't tell him the truth. She knew the boy didn't deserve to be treated like that but she told herself that the less he knew, the better. Eventually, he had returned to Morley, not without first making clear how disappointed he was with her and how much she had changed.

Emily silently gave him the reason, she wasn't the same as before, she recognized that she also found it difficult to see herself in the mirror, she didn't see herself in that reflection. And, again, she asked herself if her mother would be proud of her and the empress she had become. Probably, her mother would never have imagined such situation for her daughter.

Corvo had been more sympathetic on this subject than Wyman, of course, because he had been through the same thing for years and he didn't wanted to his daughter to be alone in that. However, Emily knew that her father would never have wanted that for her, he didn't like it that she had to wear _his_ mark engraved on her skin and the fact that The Outsider found her interesting. He trying to talk with her, never leaving her alone and let her know that he was there for what she needed, that between them nothing had change.

And it wasn't that she didn't want his help or of another one, it was that she simply knew that she couldn't do as if nothing had happened, she just had to look at her left hand to remind him, the Void and his dark eyes. As black as the darkest of nights and like the inhospitable and dangerous depths of the ocean.

She knew she couldn't escape his gaze.

When she met him, she remembered the forbidden legends of books and the whispers in the streets that spoke of him, all of that was real and she had thought that they were only forbidden ancient tales. When this one showed like friend of his father she couldn't hide her surprise and at the same time that feeling skeptical because she knew that her father didn't consider him as such, in fact, he never spoke her of him.

He offered her the same deal as his father without asking, without knowing if she really wanted that but Emily knew that it was the only way to recover what was her and save her father, and she did it.

And he was fascinated by her choices, by the fact that she didn't want to spill more blood that the necessary.

And it was in the solitude of her room, when she found time to think of something other than his duties and her people, when she could think of herself that she started to question things.

Why he had chosen her? Because of her father? For her mother? Because of Delilah? Or just because he was bored?

Emily tended to believe it was a mix of everything, she knew that he hadn't liked what her dearest aunt had done, he showed her how much hated being linked with Delilah. But, he had also shared information with her, he had talked about himself, about how he became what he was, it could be that he had no choice but to do it to make her understand how Delilah had accomplished everything.

The Void, as she had seemed to her, it was a horrible place to pass the time after all theses years, she supposed that was why he occasionally marked somebody, to spend the days without geting bored in that cold and solitary place. Althought when he got bored of that person, he abandoned them, as far as she knew he had never seen her father again after fifteen years since he had given him the mark. so Emily was realistic when she thought she would never see him again.

However,every night she went to bed expecting to find an answer in her dreams, praying that he would continue to find her interesting, wanting to be able to see him again and be able to heard more ancient stories about the world. Sometimes, in the darkness of the night she went in search of shrines dedicated to him in secret, waiting for some signal from him just to be able to ask him some questions that perhaps he wouldn't answer. Corvo didn't approve it, he didn't like his daughter wanting to invoke the presence of the God in her life again, in his opinion, the best thing was to try to move on with their lives.

– Maybe you should pay more attention to your father, Emily Kaldwin – a voice told her.

She opened her eyes to find herself in her room but not the one she remembered, it was the Void version of her room, she heard him but he wasn't there, so she knew he was somewhere watching her. Emily blinked and started walking by the island, she could use one of her skills to find him more easily if she wanted.

Nothing had changed since the last time she was there a few months ago, she still felt the place as it drew her attention by keeping so many secrets. How bigger could be and what was hidden in all the islands?

The Outsider appeared suddenly and without warning, as he always did, sitting on the edge of the island looking at a leviathan pass.

– It's curious – he observed.

– What is it ? – she replied.

– Not so many people would want to go back here – he explained in his usual calm tone – but you...you like this place, you find it interesting, you want to understand it.

– It's not like that – she told him.

– Then why do you wish so bad to be here, Empress? – he asked her.

– I need to ask you something – Emily explained.

– Questions that maybe don't have answer – The Oustider observed – Didn't you know that curiosity killed thet cat, Empress?

– I will take that risk – she replied.

Emily watched as he shrugged, he seemed pleased, as if he knew beforehand that it was what she wanted from him and he had accepted it as something natural. There was the chance that he would have read her mind although she wanted to believe that he respected her thoughts and her privacy, but it could also be evident.

– When we met, you said that you didn't expect to meet me – Emily reminded him

– I remember – he confirmed.

– It was true? – she asked.

– It was – The Outsider replied disappearing from her sight and leaving those words in the air, like an echo that echoed through the place – It offends me a little that you doubt of my words, empress – he added appearing in front of her – I never lied to you and I will never.

– Lying and hiding the truth are two concepts as similar as different – she observed.

– Oh, Emily, don't you know that you know more about me than others? – he reminded her – Don't I share with you the secret of my origin?

– You didn't have a choice – she remarked.

– There is always another choice – he replied, crossing his arms – But what I told you was true, you and I shouldn't have known each other, it shouldn't have been like this, it wasn't in my plans to mark you but it happened.

–What made you change your mind? – Emily asked him, the more he talked, the more she wanted to know.

– Not what, who – he corrected her – and you know her name.

Like a flash of lightning her name appeared in Emily's mind, Delilah,

–I sent Daud to kill her, you can say that I challenged him, giving him her name – he explained by following the thread of her thoughts – she...had some plans that I didn't like, the less you know, the better.

–You don't have to protect me from whatever you hide me, I'm not a little girl – she reproached him – After everything I've seen she've done you think you could tell me something that would surprise me?

–There are many things in this world that you don't know, Emily – You can't want to know everything when I can't.

–You can't compare us – observed Emily – you're a god, I'm human, it's not the same.

– And your time is just bound by that – he observed – I have seen men and women anxious for knowledge to go mad at what they discovered, I have seen the nightmares they suffered at the mere memory of it.

Emily thought that the Outsider's efforts to protect her were almost adorable , mostly, because they both knew she was going to get what she wanted.

– That won't happen to me – she replied calmly.

– And that's what everyone always says – he replied, fixing his eyes on hers, seeing that the Empress didn't look away, the faint ghost of a smile of complacency appeared on his face – Do you remember what I told you about Delilah? She was thinking big and acting long term and she had something prepared for you long before what happened a few months ago in Dunwall Tower.

On hearing him comment that , something inside Emily stirred, she noticed that the mark burned under her glove but she said nothing to interrupt him.

– Her plan was to possess you when you were a little girl – The Outsider told her – she wanted your throne, that never changed, of course. Who knows when she started planning it, maybe when you were born.

Delilah's wickedness, apparently, hadn't known limits.

The Empress blinked in confusion and brought a hand to the back of her neck, trying to process all that new information, maybe he was right when he told her that it was better for her to know nothing about that but it was too late to go back and though she was horrified at the thought of being possessed as a child by her aunt, trapped without any awareness, she was thankful for knowing it. Although she admitted that he had a most ironic and twisted sense of humor to have sent the murderer of her mother to save her daughter.

However, a single thought crossed her mind, although she had said at the outset that she was only going to ask one question, she needed to know something more.

–You...you protected me...- she mumbled- why?

The Outsider again looked at her, maybe he was trying to understand why her expression had suddenly changed, because she was no longer anxious and demanding with him, if not confused and surprised.

–I was human once, you know it – he started to explain with a lugubrious tone, starting to wander around the girl– I was an orphan born in special circumstances with no one who was going to miss him, so I was the perfect victim for some people who didn't hesitate to kidnap me and sacrifice me in a strange ritual, without asking me, people that anchored me to this place, to eternity and to divinity.

She already knew that, in his moment he had had the detail , whatever the reason he had to, to tell her and yet, Emily shuddered to hear him tell her that and imagining him in those circumstances.

– It's not the same as they were going to do to you but I wasn't going to tolerate it – he added.

Emily couldn't imagine what would have been of her life if The Outsider hadn't intervened and had stopped Delilah, she could not think of the idea of being a prisoner of her own body, something worse than being a puppet that her aunt controlled, the idea by itself was one of the worst nightmares that could occur to her, she had been very lucky.

–Thank you – she finally said.

The words had come out of her mouth without thinking , but she was truly grateful, her life could well have been very different from not being for him. It was funny because The Outsider claimed to be neutral in the face of events in the world he was observing and didn't intervene in them, that he didn't even have favorites among the people who he marked but he had just proved that he wasn't.

To her delight, The Outsider looked surprised, if it were not for his eyes she could say that it was what they could say but the way of his arched eyebrows and who he had his head tilted slightly, Emily knew that he was confused, maybe for the first time in many years.

Had no one ever thanked him?

– Why are you thanking me? – he asked with a slight burlesque tone in his voice.

– Because you saved my life – she replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world – because you gave me power to save my father and recover what was mine and because my mother always said that I've to be polite.

–You are a strange woman, Emily Kaldwin – he observed, waving his hand – who knows, maybe we could meet us again.

Before returning to the real world, Emily would swear a moment later that she saw him again smiling. She told herself that eventually she could live with everything that had happened to her, just like her father did, she had already assumed she couldn't escape his gaze and she didn't care.

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 **Okay, I thought I was never going to end this xD**

 **I've started this at work because I was a bit bored. English isn't my mother language so maybe there is a few mistakes, so sorry about that, I've tried my best.**

 **And well, I like The Outsider a lot and I like him with Emily and I wanted to do some emsider.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading this random oneshot!**


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